Easy, Thyroid(er)
For goodness sakes, I got the hippy-hippy shakes.
At the start of 2023, I was diagnosed with Graves’ disease and Hashimoto’s disease. If you Google it (as I had to), it describes Graves as an immune system disorder that results in the overproduction of thyroid hormones (hyperthyroidism).
If you Google Hashimoto’s, it says “Your immune system attacks your thyroid gland by mistake. Your thyroid then can't make enough thyroid hormone, so your body can't work as well.”
When is an over-active thyroid not an over-active thyroid? When it’s under-active. *waits for laughter*
Famous thyroid-sufferers include Michael Rosen, Kelly Clarkson, Kim Cattrall, Hilary Clinton, Ronaldo, Zoe Saldana, and Oprah Winfrey.
I originally went to the doctor in October ‘22, as I had been developing quite an impressive shakiness for some time, and it was getting progressively worse. I first noticed the problem a few years ago, but did my best to talk myself out of doing anything about it, because that would mean something was wrong with me, right?
So I’d lay in bed at night with my neck and back pulsating in time with my heartbeat, and when I say pulsating I mean throbbing. But that was fine - apart from a disturbed sleep, nobody else could see it. It certainly couldn’t be Parkinson’s… could it? Either way, best to ignore it and hope it just goes away by itself. *EYE ROLL*
It was the shakiness that finally forced me to look in the mirror of ignorance: When you have to ask the staff of Costas to fetch your latte to your table you’re either in denial or lording it over the baristas.
So I went to the doctor. I didn’t have the classic, obvious symptom of a large lump protruding from my neck (known as a goitre). But having Googled everything else that I’d noticed wrong with me, everything suggested a thyroid issue.
Doctor: “Why do you think you have a thyroid problem?”
Me: “Googled it.”
Of course, I don’t want Dr. Google to be diagnosing health problems, but the search results were unavoidable. The Doctor booked me in for a blood test, and within a couple of weeks, she telephoned me to say I had a thyroid problem. She then asked:
“Would you like to take medication? I prefer my patients to decide for themselves whether they want to take a course of action.”
Me, after a brief pause of What The Flip: “Yes please.”
I was initially prescribed carbimazole and propranolol (or propranololololol, as I prefer to call it), and booked to see a consultant at the hospital. By the time the appointment came around three months later, the consultant explained with slightly wide eyes that I shouldn’t be on propranolol - at least not for three months.
Stop taking it. Got it.
The appointment was brief. He explained my blood results to me, saying I had Graves’ and Hashimoto’s. With the new dosage of my meds sorted, that was it.
I didn’t know if there would be a follow-up appointment, so I kept on taking my meds and the shakiness/throbbing had all gone. Everything was back to normal… until it wasn’t.
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